G Mining Ventures (TSX:GMIN) Q3 2026 Earnings Call

0:00 Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the G-Mining Ventures third quarter 2026 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. Following the presentation, we will conduct a question-and-answer session. As a reminder, this call is being recorded. I would now like to turn the call over to Jean-Francois Lemonde, Vice President, Investor Relations. Please go ahead. Thank you, operator, and thank you, everybody, for attending Gene Mining's third quarter 2026 conference call. In addition to myself, we have on the line today Louis-Thierry Gignac, President and Chief Executive Officer, and Julie Lafleur, Chief Financial Officer. As we will be making forward-looking statements during this call, please refer to the cautionary notes and disclosure in RMDNA and on slide two of the webcast presentation.

0:55 Also, please keep in mind that all dollar amounts mentioned during the call are in U.S. dollars, unless otherwise noted. Now, I will turn the call over to Louis Gignac to provide you with an overview of the quarter. Louis Gignac Thank you, Jean-Francois, and good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining today's call. I want to start by recognizing the dedication of our teams across all our sites, whose commitment to safety, operational excellence, and Responsible Mining continues to drive our success. My team and I are pleased to report another solid operating quarter. Our last call, we talked about the step up in production that we expected in the second half of the year as we moved into higher grade phase two mineralization.

1:40 And our third quarter has delivered on that plan as shown on slide four. Production increased 22% quarter over quarter to 45,000 ounces. Cash costs and all in sustaining costs declined 8% and 6% respectively, well below the industry's average in Q3 of approximately $1,400 per ounce for cash costs and $2,000 per ounce for all-in sustaining costs. All-in sustaining margins remained strong in the quarter at 58%. That translated into $80 million of free cash flow for the quarter, or 1,884 ounces of gold produced. This is no small accomplishment in the quarter where oil averaged $100 a barrel and the price of diesel almost doubled and where trade tariffs in war are all challenging supply chains and logistics globally.

2:31 Importantly, even in this difficult environment, we remain on track to deliver our full year 2026 production and cost guidance, albeit at the midpoint of our guidance for production. 2027 guidance for production and cost capital remain unchanged. Turning to the highlights on slide five, TSE continued to perform in line with the mine plan. Mining rates increased 7% from the second quarter to a new quarterly record of 74,209 tons per day, which is at the targeted mining rate. The key improvement this quarter was driven by the planned higher grade mine sequencing. Process plant throughput increased 11% from the second quarter to a record quarterly average of 12,372 tons per day, representing 96% of main plate capacity.

3:27 During the quarter, average process grades were 1.33 gram per ton versus 1.23 gram per ton in the second quarter and 1.03 gram per ton in the first quarter. Gold recoveries remained strong at 92%. Production is expected to increase significantly in Q4, driven by a full quarter contribution of higher-grade Phase II mineralization. Total cash costs and ASIC expected to decrease in Q4, bringing four-year costs within our guidance.

4:03 Thank you, Louis Gignac, and good morning, everyone. Revenue in the third quarter was $172.7 million, The increase primarily reflects a higher realized gold price, which reached over 4,000 per ounce, compared with 3,292 per ounce in Q3 2025. Adjusted EBITDA increased 2.5% year-over-year to 125.6 million. Reflecting higher revenue, partially offset by higher labor, royalty, and energy costs.

4:49 Net income was $99.5 million, compared with $123.8 million in the third quarter 2025. The year-over-year comparison was affected by the tax benefits recognized in Q3 2025, Following approval of the Sudan tax incentive for TZ. Cash flow from operating activities before changes in working capital was $115 million, up 9% from the second quarter. Our balance sheet remains strong. We ended the quarter with $137 million in cash and $31 million in total debt.

5:36 including our undrawn $350 million revolving credit facility. Total liquidity was $487 million, well above the $417 million of remaining capital required to reach first gold at OCO. We also began returning capital to shareholders. Following TSX approval for our normal course issuer bid in August, We repurchase and cancel 102,500 shares in the quarter at an average price of 49.41 Canadian dollars per share. Total capital expenditures were 172 million in the quarter.

6:26 This includes 14.8 million of sustaining capital, 16.2 million of capitalized exploration, and 132.9 million of development capital at OCO Gold. Sustaining capital remains in line with guidance and we expect sustaining capital to decline in the fourth quarter. Exploration spending is expected to increase as we complete the OCO Gani infill program while OCO development capital is expected to reach its peak quarterly spend in Q4. Turning to guidance, we remain on track to deliver within our 2026 production and ASIC guidance ranges.

7:15 Year-to-date production is 114,000 ounces, against full year guidance of 150,000 to 190,000 ounces. We expect production to increase meaningfully in Q4 as Phase II ore contributes for a full quarter. Our 2026 ASIC guidance remains 1,330 to 1,444 per ounce, as we expect four-quarter costs to decline sufficiently to bring full-year performance within that range. We have increased 2026 capitalized exploration guidance by 11 million to 53 million to 61 million, Reflecting the OCO Gany infill program launched in Q3.

8:09 Sustaining capital and OCO development capital guidance remain unchanged. Looking ahead, 2027 production guidance is 200,000 to 235,000 ounces, excluding OCO gold. At the midpoint, this represents approximately 25 growth over 2026. We also expect 2027 cash cost and ASIC to decline by approximately 23% to 26% respectively compared with 2026 midpoint. Now, I will turn the call back to Louis-Pierre to provide an update on OCO and Gurupi and our outlook going forward.

9:00 Thank you, Julie. With results, largely in line with expectations and with no big surprises. This morning we wanted to spend less time talking about the past quarter and we want to spend a little more time talking about the substantial and important value drivers of our company going forward. The corporation continues to rapidly advance its large-scale, long-life, local gold project in Guyana, which remains on budget and on schedule for first gold pour in the second half of 2027. At the end of the third quarter, Approximately $555 million was spent on the project, representing 57% of the approved initial capital budget of $973 million, with approximately $417 million remaining to be spent through completion.

9:46 Total commitments reached $714 million, or 73% of the approved capital budget. Total capital expenditures guidance at Oka Gold for 26 and 27 remained unchanged. On-site workforce now exceeds 2,100 employees and contractors, with 3.3 million hours worked to date, and over 78% being local employment, demonstrating the corporation's commitment to local content. Overall project progress at OcoGold has reached 38.4% based on earned value at the end of Q3, with rapid progress being made across several work streams, as shown on the pictures on slide 10.

10:31 Mill construction continues to advance with the mill shelves delivered on site marking the commencement of mechanical installation. Power plant construction continues to advance ahead of schedule with mechanical installation inside the engine hall with all generators received, positioned, and aligned. The mining fleet includes eight fully commissioned and operational mine trucks along with three dozers and the assembly of the third production shovel nearly complete. As shown on slide 11, the schedule remains unchanged, with first role targeted for Phase 1 for the second half of 2027, in commercial production expected in early 2028. With the G2 acquisition completed on July 29, we have consolidated the Ocogani deposits with Ocomain.

11:21 We launched an infill drilling program at Ocogani in the quarter, which we expect to complete by year-end. It will support an integrated mineral resource estimate and an updated feasibility study for the combined project targeted towards mid-year next year. So the target is to add 2 to 2.5 million tons per annum of processing capacity, allowing us to get up to 500,000 ounces per year for an approximate 16 years mine life, increasing from the 350 per year planned under Phase 1. As shown on slide 12, we believe that OCA Gold is the only true Tier 1 gold asset currently in construction globally. Most importantly, OCA Gold remains fully funded.

12:08 Our sources of capital are approximately $1.12 billion. This includes $137 million in cash, $632 million of projected GZ free cash flow, from Q3-26 through Q4-27 at a $4,000 gold price and our $350 million credit facility that is untapped. Against that, we have about $417 million of remaining OCO construction capital and $88 million of corporate and G&A exploration. That leaves a projected liquidity surplus of more than $600 million. This gives us the flexibility to fund growth such as the planned OCO expansion and continue our share buybacks while maintaining a strong balance sheet.

12:54 Beyond OCO, we continue to advance our pipeline. At Garupi, drilling continues to expand mineralization at Blanket and Mandiokal. Maiden drilling at Brodieokal identified near-surface mineralization along a corridor of about five kilometers. An updated mineral resource is expected before year-end, which will form the basis of a PA targeted by the end of this year. We also remain on track to follow the ESIA in the fourth quarter. At Teezy, drilling up to 150 meters below the current pit has confirmed mineralization, continues at depth, and regional work has identified a 15 by 3 kilometer mineralized corridor with multiple satellite targets.

13:41 At Teezy, we expect higher production and lower costs from the full year contribution of higher grade Phase II ore in 2027. At Oko Gold, our focus remains on advancing construction through the peak construction period, commissioning the power plant and grinding circuit, and delivering first gold in the second half of 2027. We also expect several important catalysts across the portfolio, including the updated feasibility study for the integrated Oko Gold project, a group EPA, an updated resource, and continual exploration across all our assets. That concludes my remarks. Operator, we are now ready to take questions.

14:30 At this time, if you would like to ask a question, please press star 1 on your telephone keypad. We will pause for just a moment to compile the Q&A roster. Your first question comes from the line of Fahad Tariq with Jefferies. Please go ahead.

14:49 Hi, thanks for taking my question. At TZ, now that we're halfway through the fourth quarter, can you talk a little bit about what you're seeing in terms of grade and whether it's aligned with your internal model? And secondly, whether that's the run rate grade we should expect for 2027? Thanks. Yeah, so we're continuing to make good progress on Q4. So we're continuing to see our grade increase from Q3. So that's based on, you know, the expectations that we had with our mine plan. And basically, I would say also, more importantly, our mining rate and mining plan is really catching up on some of the waste stripping issues. and we expect to catch up by the end of the year, which really sets us up nice for 2027 in terms of our mine plan and access to high-grade material.

15:45 Okay, and then maybe switching gears to Oko, 73% of the CapEx is now committed. Can you talk a little bit about what you're seeing in terms of underlying inflationary pressures, if any, across the different, I guess, buckets of costs? Yeah. I'd say for a lot of the equipment items, those were procured a long time ago and, you know, locked in basically. I'd say a lot of the cost pressures that we've had on the project is related to logistics costs. So, you know, incoming ocean freight for bringing materials and equipment to sites. That's been our, you know, The biggest cost pressure that we've had to deal with at this point.

16:36 Okay, great. Thanks, LP. Thanks. Your next question comes from the line of Ralph Graffitti with BeFull Financial. Please go ahead.

16:49 Thanks for taking my question. We're sitting here, you know, the Brazilian Real is sort of depleted, maybe, you know, 10%, 12%. It's certainly providing. Yeah, no, that's a very good observation since the Brazilian election. Like you said, the Brazilian reality is So, that is, you know, with that kind of movement in the exchange rate, we've taken the opportunity to hedge about 42% of our exposure for next year, you know, at forward rates that are quite attractive versus all of our budget assumptions.

17:49 So, yeah, that's going to be a Thank you very much.

18:21 and then secondly as a follow-up, you know, you mentioned in your prepared remarks some of the exploration spending at OCO that's gone up and just how many meters are we talking about for this infill program and is this just a matter of like bringing the scope of the two assets together when you talk about that expanded spending or is something like more geology driving that? Yeah, exactly. So when we closed the transaction, The G2 team had started the infill drilling program and we've basically just been consuming that program and we have 55,000 meters that we've budgeted since the transaction closed. And we're about, as we speak, about 80% complete on that program and aim to have it fully complete by the end of the year.

19:16 As we say, this is really the building block for the updated feasibility study. And, you know, the drilling program has gone extremely well. We have 12 drills turning and it's making great progress. I'd say the bottleneck or challenge that we're dealing with is more the assay turnaround from the assay lab. So that's what we're dealing with in terms of being able to update our integrated feasibility study.

19:46 Understood. Thanks for taking my questions. Thanks. Your next question comes from the line of Harrison Reynolds with RBC Capital Markets. Please go ahead.

19:58 Hi. Good morning, G-Mining team, and congratulations on a good quarter. I wanted to follow up on the Okogane infill drilling program. Any incremental observations on how that's going as it relates to grade continuity you're seeing mineralization geometry relative to the historical G2 model and are you expecting to provide any interim results or just put those in the and have that inform the updated resource? Yeah I'd say like based on core observation you know when We've seen the model to be very predictive. So when we drill, we hit visually mineralization as we expect based on the model.

20:45 So again, to the kind of maybe previous comment, we're still waiting on a lot of assays. We have a pretty substantial backlog. But I think, yeah, a lot of the drilling is indicating that our model is very, very good. And What was the second part of your question again?

21:11 Just if you were expecting to release the infill results as you receive assays. Yeah, we won't do it as we receive, but I think that the objective is once we do have a substantial amount of them in, we'll likely do an expiration update for Guyana. So that's one thing that we would do prior to the feasibility study. So give, you know, essentially some color on the continuity and the results we've got. Yeah, we'll be doing that. We're targeting Q1 to be able to release some substantial information on that infill program.

21:48 Got it. Sounds good. Thank you. And then just on OCO engineering, wanted to ask how that's progressing, completion of detailed engineering. It sounds like it's guided for year end. Any read-throughs to the overall project schedule or first goal time here? Would you say around September-ish is still your target for commissioning? Yeah, so the detail engineering is basically complete now. It's only just what we call construction support for the team on site. So yeah, things are going extremely well. We've de-risked now the critical path with the grinding mills being delivered on site and The start of installation. So that September target for start of commissioning is still holding nicely at this point.

22:37 I would say, you know, despite the infill drilling taking some time to complete, that's not holding us back from progressing on, call it, the engineering of phase two. So the actual expansion of the plant and power plant. So we're advancing quite well on that and essentially we've already placed a purchase order for the additional ball mill to secure that timeline and essentially start the construction of the expanded plant in 2028.

23:15 Great, sounds good. Thank you for the detail and look forward to ongoing progress. Thanks. Thanks. Your next question comes from the line of Robby Nizami with National Bank of Canada. Please go ahead.

23:31 Thank you, and hi, everybody. It looks like a good quarter, and I see you're tracking towards the midpoint of guidance, so it seems like a good sign for the grade complexion coming in. Looking forward to 2027, I know grades are rising. Are you also seeing some potential to push the TZ mill throughput a bit higher than the nameplate? Or is this entirely driven by grade for next year? I mean, currently it's mostly driven by grade. I would say, you know, since we've been running the plant, we continue to have continued, you know, improvements on throughput and reliability. So, yeah, I think essentially we do expect at some point to be able to push above main plate we've been working on some de-bottlenecking aspects in the plant and one of the capex projects of this year was adding tailings pumping capacity so that's going to de-bottleneck the back end we are looking at for next year the addition of a pebble crusher on the grinding circuit so those are You know, not very high capex projects that we're looking at that would allow us to push additional tonnage.

24:52 So, those are currently at the study stage, but we still see incremental improvements that we can do on the plant.

25:01 Gotcha. So, that would be incremental to the guidance that you issued earlier? Yeah. So, it's not approved at this point, and we take a certain amount of time to execute as well. Got it.

25:13 And then... Just quickly on power cost for TZED, how much of the processing cost there is for Defco City right now? And is 2027 cost, is the power contracted or exposed to market prices in Brazil? Is there any recoup on that? So, you know, if we look at this year, year to date, power costs are about 3% of our ASIC. So it's not a large percentage of costs. So we're currently renewing our power purchase agreement for next year. And we're targeting to lock in at least half of it.

26:01 And we do see rates that have increased since the contract that we established three years ago. But yeah, even if that goes up, it's still a small percentage of our costs.

26:14 I remember that was a fairly low contract that you began with, so that's good to hear that it's coming along. The main focus would be on OcoWest. I think going forward, TZAC seems like it's coming along nicely. A lot of my questions on OcoWest have been answered, but you do also have this Guru PPA coming up towards the end of the quarter. You've spoken in the past about expectations for that. I mean, if there's anything new, that'd be nice to hear what you're thinking for expectations there. But I'll tie another question to that, which is you're also filing some permit works along with that. So could you walk us through the permit timeline after the PEA comes out and what to expect that will be going into next year?

27:02 Yeah, so I would say just in terms of You know, advancing that project, it's really the permitting that's going to be the main critical path, I would say, as opposed to drilling and study work. So that's why we're really keen to submit our ESIA at year-end. And, I mean, anticipation is maybe towards the end of 27, we could get the preliminary LI, which then triggers the... The next step to get to the full LI, which would be in 2028. We do have a small amount of people that are within the project footprint that we need to relocate. So a big objective of next year is to advance that resettlement action plan and progress on that as well. So those are the two main paths that we're dealing with on Garupi at this point.

28:05 Excellent. We'll look forward to that. Thank you for answering my questions and congratulations again. Thanks. Your next question comes from the line of Anita Soni with CIBC. Please go ahead.

28:19 Hi. Good morning. Thanks for taking my questions. I just wanted to dig a little bit more into our 2027 outlook. I think I'm just looking at the old guidance of 200 to 235 for next year. You're tracking to the midpoint for this year, so is there any reason to modify our expectations for 2027, or does that old guidance still stand? Yeah, for production, we feel that that guidance still stands. Also, just because our mine plan has been really catching up with some of the deferred stripping that was done We're really back in a good shape to execute on 2027.

29:34 that I think it's 14 and 20% decline in cash costs in ASIC from 26 to 2027. Yeah, so I think the big factor in our guidance was the exchange rate. So we had used 555 as an assumption for the exchange rate. And I mean, currently we're kind of back in that range. So that's the supporting factor that we have. with respect to our cost guidance that's helping us at this point. And like we were just saying, the electricity might be a factor that goes up a little bit. It's not a big percentage of our costs.

30:21 And just maybe on the diesel, we're currently at about $1.30 a liter right now. We had about $1 a litre in our budget assumptions. So maybe a bit of inflation there that we could expect on the diesel side versus what we assumed in our guidance.

30:45 And do you have a rough ballpark on the sort of like every change, 10% change, would result in an X dollar per ounce number? Yeah. Yeah, I think our estimate that we have is 10% change is about a $5 an ounce impact on our ASIC.

31:05 Okay. And then just looking at any of the sustaining capital and non-sustaining, is there anything that you would change in there that we should be considering as we think about 2027? I mean, we're going through our budgeting process for next year. I think if we do add some capex, it's really going to be towards... Moving our capacity up in terms of milling rate. To me, if we add to what we've guided, it's going to have positive effects on the overall plant.

31:37 Okay. All right. Thank you. That's it for my questions. Thanks. Our next question comes from the line of Jeremy Hoy with Canaccord Genuity. Please go ahead.

31:52 ILP, Julie, and JF. Just one quick follow-up for me, and it's on Garubi. You've had a lot of exploration success there. It looks like resources could grow pretty significantly. Following up on Ravi's question and evolution and thinking on what that operation ultimately looks like, you've been asking for details ahead of the PEA, and you've said potentially a plant a little bigger than TZ. Given the exploration results and what you're seeing, you know, is the thinking around scale potentially changing or, you know, is the direction you've provided earlier still really what you would give now? Yeah, I'd say, you know, with exploration, it's always difficult to get the full answer. Like, we've had great success, I would say, on drilling new New zones that have proved to be mineralized.

32:54 You know, maybe not all of that gets transitioned into the PA, but I'd say based on what we know now, we're going to have enough resources, you know, call it mineable resources to support a milling rate of 5.8 million tons per annum. So that's That's essentially closer to OCO Phase 1 in terms of throughput. So, yeah, we see it as a resource base that can really support the scale, high-scale operation.

33:32 Great. Thank you. Looking forward to that study, and I'll step back in the queue.

33:38 Thanks. Your final question comes from the line of David McCausland, shareholder. Please go ahead.

33:50 Excuse me. Good morning. Boy, you're doing a really good job on elucidating how much you know about the projects that you're doing. I certainly appreciate the forthcomingness. I've been a shareholder before G Mining bought the Oco West property from Reunion. and I also have been a shareholder in G2, which they also did a great job in developing their resource. You did some exploratory drilling up near G2's property just before you did the acquisition of G2 and now you're doing a lot of more drilling in the G2 property.

34:38 Is it possible that you're going to make a Major change in the size of the pit that you're going to start out with and possibly have it exploit both the property line, basically, both north and south. And last question is, there's a neighbor of yours to Jiri. Are they in the way of a major expansion of the mining there? Thank you. Yeah, so, yeah, with the combination of the, you know, all the deposits with the Oko Ghani and Oko Main, we do have the opportunity to initiate mining on the Ghani side ahead of, you know, in an accelerated version in our integrated project. So, yes, we do see the ability to increase the mining rates and actually be mining in Oko West and Ghani In the early years of the mine life. So that's kind of point number one. It allows for a lot of optimization and flexibility in the mine plan. We don't see the pits growing substantially in the sense that it's more of a trade-off between open pit and underground, where it's just beneficial to go underground at some point and reduce the strip ratios.

36:08 So, yeah, with that, we don't see the pits, you know, encroaching or, you know, getting outside of our boundary limits. So, nothing really touches the theory unpackage here.

36:25 Okay. Well, thank you very much. And I hope all the good development keeps going. We need the gold. So, okay. Thank you very much. No problem. The team is doing a great job, so thanks for the question. There are no further questions at this time. I will turn the call back to Jean-Francois Lemonde for closing remarks. Thank you, everyone, for joining us today and for your continued interest in G-Mining. We are, of course, focused on delivering a strong finish of the year. as we look ahead to what promises to be a transformational year ahead for the company. I just have a great day, and if you have any further questions, please feel free to reach out to me directly anytime. Thank you. This concludes the conference call.

37:18 Ladies and gentlemen, you may now disconnect.